Clearleaf

A free, no-frills Markdown viewer for Windows. Open a .md file and read it the way it's meant to look: clean text, proper tables, highlighted code, diagrams and maths.

Get it from the Microsoft Store

Runs on Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) and Windows 11.

Clearleaf showing a document with a tip box and a table, with the side pane listing its headings and file details, in the light theme — A document with its table of contents

Clearleaf showing a diagram, maths and highlighted code, in the dark theme — Diagrams, maths and code

Clearleaf showing a sequence diagram, in the light theme — A sequence diagram

Clearleaf showing a table and a pie chart, with the side pane listing the document's headings, in the dark theme — A table and pie chart

Reading Markdown

Open files straight from File Explorer or the Open dialog, drag them in, or pick from your recent files.
Each file opens in its own tab. Drag tabs to reorder them, and Clearleaf picks up where you left off, down to your place in each file.
A side pane shows a table of contents: click a heading to jump straight to it.
Tables, task lists, footnotes and GitHub-style note boxes.
Mermaid diagrams: flowcharts, sequence diagrams, pie charts, timelines and more.
Maths, using KaTeX, and syntax-highlighted code.
Switch between three views: Contents, Code (such as the Markdown source) and Binary (a hex view of the file's bytes).

More than Markdown

Clearleaf also opens the files that sit alongside your notes: text and log files, code, CSV tables, pictures, Mermaid diagrams and HTML files. See the full list of supported formats.

Log files open at their newest lines and follow along as they grow.
HTML files open in a locked-down view, with no scripts and nothing loaded from the internet.
Picture details: size, camera settings, and when and where the photo was taken.
Click a picture to open it in its own tab, copy it (or part of it) or drag it out. You can copy text too.

Handy extras

Full screen, zoom up to 500%, find text, print and save as PDF.
Refreshes automatically when a file is saved by another program.
Can open when you sign in to Windows, if you choose.
In ten languages, following Windows, with a right-to-left layout for Arabic.
Light and dark themes that follow Windows.

Private and safe by design

Works entirely offline. It's standalone, with nothing else to install, and never loads or runs anything from the internet.
Only your own files. It opens files stored on your PC, not files on network drives or shared folders.
Read-only. It never changes, moves or deletes your files, and nothing in a document can run.
Nothing to sign up for. No adverts, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions and no account or sign-in.
No data collection. Clearleaf collects no data and doesn't share data with other apps. Read the Clearleaf privacy statement.

Why I made it

I was struggling to find a standalone Markdown viewer that worked. There were several good ones built into other apps, but I didn't want to jump through hoops just to view a Markdown file.

That's how Clearleaf came about. After I got Markdown viewing working well, I decided the app should do more, so now it opens other simple files too. It's a pet project, made by just me and still under active development.

Support and feedback

Email support@sidhowlop.com for help, bug reports and ideas.

Found a bug? Please describe what happened in detail, optionally with a screenshot and, if you're happy to share it, the file being viewed.
Missing something? If there's another simple file format you'd like Clearleaf to support, or a feature you think would be a good addition, let me know.
Enjoying it? I'd be grateful for a positive review in the Microsoft Store.

Supported file formats

Clearleaf opens the file formats below. Any file can also be shown in the Binary view.

Format	File extensions and names
Markdown	.md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd, .mkdn, .mdwn, .mdtxt, .mdtext
HTML (locked down)	.html, .htm, .xhtml
Plain text	.txt
Log file (opens at the newest lines)	.log
CSV or TSV table	.csv, .tsv
Mermaid diagram	.mmd, .mermaid
Picture	.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .webp, .svg, .bmp, .ico, .avif
JSON	.json, .jsonc, .json5, .geojson, .webmanifest, .ipynb
XML	.xml, .xsd, .xsl, .xslt, .xaml, .csproj, .vbproj, .fsproj, .props, .targets, .config, .resx, .plist, .rss, .atom
YAML	.yaml, .yml
INI and config	.ini, .cfg, .conf, .toml, .editorconfig, .gitconfig, .inf, .reg, .env, .iss
Properties	.properties
PowerShell	.ps1, .psm1, .psd1
Batch	.bat, .cmd
Shell script	.sh, .bash, .zsh, .ksh
Python	.py, .pyw
JavaScript	.js, .mjs, .cjs, .jsx
TypeScript	.ts, .tsx, .mts, .cts
C#	.cs, .csx
F#	.fs, .fsx, .fsi
Visual Basic	.vb
Java	.java
Kotlin	.kt, .kts
Go	.go
Rust	.rs
C	.c
C++	.cpp, .cc, .cxx, .h, .hpp, .hh, .hxx
Objective-C	.m, .mm
PHP	.php
Ruby	.rb
Perl	.pl, .pm
Lua	.lua
R	.r
Swift	.swift
Scala	.scala
Dart	.dart
Haskell	.hs
Elixir	.ex, .exs
Groovy	.groovy, .gradle
SQL	.sql
CSS	.css
SCSS	.scss
Less	.less
GraphQL	.graphql, .gql
Diff	.diff, .patch
Makefile	.mk, .mak, Makefile, GNUmakefile
CMake	.cmake, CMakeLists.txt
Protocol Buffers	.proto
LaTeX	.tex, .sty
HTTP	.http
WebAssembly text	.wat
Dockerfile	Dockerfile
Any other file	Shown as plain text, or in the Binary view

Older text files that aren't Unicode are read using the encoding that goes with the language Windows uses: for example, Windows-1251 when Windows is in Russian, or Shift-JIS when it's in Japanese.